Choices
by Dracaenas
Summary: the long awaited (i hope) D/H fic. my loyal fans know what i'm talking about, the rest of you can read and see what's up. i actually think it's pretty good, so r/r. bye


Narcissa Malfoy stood calmly over her son, a statue of ice and marbl_e_. The only thing colorful about her was the bloodstained whip in her hand. Even her dress was ice-white. "Now, do you see why Mother always has what's best for you in mind?" she asked in a calm, smooth, frigid voice. It was smooth and sweet and the epitome of reason. It was horrifying.

"Yes Mother." At times like these it was always best to agree and get out of the way.

"And will you continue to ignore and insult the Mudblood?"

"Yes Mother."Ignore Hermione? She might as well ask him to rip out his heart and play darts with it!

"Then you are dismissed."

"Thank you Mother."

He walked to his room, slowly and painfully. On the way he was intercepted by his father.

"Are you all right Draco?" he asked hopefully. _God she has him whipped too. _He winced inwardly at the pun.

"Well let me think," Draco snapped, letting out his anger on his father, "I've just had the skin whipped off my back, and now I get to crawl up three flights of stairs! All because I said Herm – the mudblood's name!"

"Now look here son! I will not be spoken to that way!"

"What are you going to do? Beat me?" he said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. With that he walked off.

Once he got into his room, he collapsed on the bed, letting his earlier façade of casualness gone.

Weakly he called for one of the house-elves to dress his wounds. _Oh I'm such an idiot. Most of this was deserved. I'm smarter than this! Or at least I thought I was! Oh well. Yet another thing forbidden. I'll have to remember not to talk about Hermione. Ever again._

Draco got off the Hogwarts Express, blinking in the sun. He yawned and stretched, ignoring the sharp burning pain in his back where the whip had gotten him. "Hi Crabbe, Hi Goyle," he said lazily.

"Hi Malfoy," Goyle said in his deep voice, "How was your vacation?"

"Oh same as usual, Mother got mad, I have a few more scars, you know how it is,"

"Yeah, same for us," 

__

But why? he wondered, _Why do we treat this as if it were a normal occurrence? Lot's of kids don't get beat up by their parents. Why do we? Are we the horrible ones? Or are they?_

At dinner, Draco had a hard time meeting Hermione eye. _What would she think of all this? If she knew what Mother did, she'd dump me in a second! _

She walked by his table on her way to the Gryffindors, and dropped a piece of parchment in his lap.

He spread it open on his lap.

Dear Draco

I'm so glad you're back! I've missed you so much! I can't wait to hear everything about your vacation, meet me in the usual place after dinner.

Hermione.

__

Oh god, he thought, _everything? She doesn't know what she's asking! But I have to tell her sometime! Fine, it's now or never._

With shaking hands he wrote back.

Hermione,

I have something very important to tell you, to important to wait, meet me in five minutes, OK? By the way the spell is Replium, and then the name of the person you want to send it to.

Draco

He took out his wand and whispered the spell while tapping the letter. He watched her pick it up out of her stew, unfold it and read. She looked over at him and nodded. Now that he was sure she'd gotten it, he got up from the table, said goodbye to everybody, and walked out of the Great Hall. Then he walked up the three flights of stairs, and down the two corridors it took to get to the chamber where the Mirror of Erised was kept. The chamber where he had first found out Hermione loved him . . .

"Draco?" Hermione said, interrupting his thoughts, "Draco, are you OK? Your letter sounded a little scary."

"Sit down Hermione, I want to show you something." He turned around and took off his shirt.

"Oh my god, Draco! Those scars? How did you get those horrible scars? It looks like 

someone— "

"Like someone whipped me, I know. That's because someone did. My mother," he cringed waiting for her to say something.

She just watched him not saying anything. The minutes dragged on. After a while he put on his shirt again. Still she didn't say anything.

"Well! Say something!" he snapped. The tension was getting to be too much.

"I-oh Draco. I'm so sorry. I don't know – I – oh god, your father! Does he know?"

"Of course he knows, there's just nothing he can do about it. Whenever he tried to stop her, she'd just tell Voldemort, and then they would have a little 'talk' which usually ended with father getting a beating worse than Mother's."

"Oh, Draco, I don't know what to say!"

"You don't have to say anything, I just need someone to be there for me. That's all you have to do."

"All right Draco, I'll do my best." Inwardly Hermione was a whirl of thoughts. _He can't really expect me to just let this go. I love him! He may not know that, but I do, I'll fix this, somehow._

He crossed over to her, and took her hand. He rubbed his fingers over her knuckled, feeling the soft warmth in her fingers. They were so long and slender; one of her rings wouldn't even fit on his pinkie! He circled her ring finger with his thumb and forefinger. _God, I really love her! This isn't just some silly crush or something! I really love her!_

He got up, the contact suddenly making him uncomfortable.

"I guess I'm gonna go to bed now," he said, faking a yawn and stretching out his arms.

"All right, I guess I'll go too, good night Draco." She watched him out of the corner of her eye, loving the way his lean muscles rippled under his skin. In the last few years he had grown tall and strong, like a basketball player.

"Good night Hermione."

Suddenly the new feeling was too much for him, he rushed over to her, and gave her a hard, fast kiss, leaving him slightly dazed. Then he ran from the room.

"I have to go now Hermi, I'll see you tomorrow."

Hermione watched him go, a silly smile on her face. Then she walked back to her common room.

__

Hermione undressed within the privacy of her bed curtains. She put on her nightgown, a white frothy lacy frivolous thing. She blushed whenever she wore it, partly from pleasure, partly from embarrasment. She brushed her hair, then stared at her reflection in the mirror. _God. I can't believe it! His own mother! I really love him! I have to help him through this. In only a year we'll be adults, and he can move out, but what about the rest of the year? I have to do something!_

Draco lay in bed, tossing and turning. _I love her, I really do. So I have only one option. So I have a choice. Choose Mother and never see Hermione again, or choose Hermione and lose my family and possibly my life. What should I do?_

A/N all right, I have a lot of stuff to say, so first of all, the disclaimer:

All these characters belong to JK Rowling. You know JK? The genius? The goddess? Not ringing a bell? Then what the heck are you reading this for? Sheesh!

Second of all, I just wanted to say that I'm in love, and going to marry, Sir (I think) Winston Churchill. Here's why:

  1. Once at a party this woman said, "Sir if you were my husband, I'd poison you," and he said, "Madam, if you were my wife I'd drink it."
  2. Once at yet another party, yet another woman said, "Sir you are drunk," and he said, "and you are ugly, but in the morning I shall be sober."

Ha ha ha! Laugh! I command thee! 

And for all you doubters out there. HE'S NOT DEAD! WINSTON ISN'T DEAD! 

****

Author covers ears and sings Star Spangled Banner 

__

"LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!!"

OK, buh-bye.


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